They harvested a record 13 billion bushels of corn last year. Most of that will likely be reprocessed for some other product. Nevertheless, what the US does with its corn is at its own discretion. If they want to eat better, they will have to work at it.


Countries with governments that are responsive to the needs of its people.

Easy to say when you live on social welfare in one of the safest, most comfortable cities in the world.

This is what it will look like if it all comes down:



But if sickness, destitution and misery for ordinary people is what you crave, please do feel free to put your (or our) money where your mouth is and go and join the revolutionary movement in Libya.

If you read Nostradamus's prophecy and believed it, then you must stop hiding your head in the sand. Something BIG is coming our way. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/...ing-Earth.html Not even local bomb shelters will protect us. We better start digging in Alps to the earth core.

You think that 'responsive to the needs of its people' is the same as 'trying to do good for humanity'?

Such elaborate fantasies. All the while, one can get hit by a bus or choke on a chicken bone to the same effect.

I pay my tribute to such science fiction and best I can do is play Asteroid (on the EF) to protect my spaceship from oncoming meteoroids. Harry Potter and Narnia will know best

Not necessarily to humanity as a whole, but it can avail itself so. When you have a government employed by its people, it is accountable to them. When they are not, such as a dictatorial tyrant, they are basically just trying to maximize their own personal profit. For the most part, people look after their own interests. Civilization occurs when they coordinate, collaborate and cooperate on meeting their needs.

[QUOTE=Phos;1119135]They harvested a record 13 billion bushels of corn last year. Most of that will likely be reprocessed for some other product. Nevertheless, what the US does with its corn is at its own discretion. If they want to eat better, they will have to work at it.

12.44 with 4.9 being used in ethanol, if record production is followed by record consumption what difference does it make?

quote: If they want to eat better, they will have to work at it.

How exactly ? by growing grain in the sand? or using petro dollars to buy it? however if its not available then what then? it becomes our problem not theirs.

I just want to say to all you gobshites who crave social change and revolution from your comfy office chairs in Zurich:

The reality of such things consists of a malnourished, scabby faced child cowering under a desk, haunted by the memory of what he has seen, heard and experienced.

It isn't a pretty sight.

It might be worth remembering that when you espouse your high minded ideas of liberty and popular power. All change has consequences for real people leading real lives. And those consequences are, more often than not, pretty dreadful.

Are you assuming they can't solve their own problems, and that the US has to solve it for them? I think those days are over. Some of the brightest minds live in the area, it's high time they harvest it. And then perhaps we can help.

Well if you think back , with all its wealth, Saudi Arabia tried it and has recently cancelled the subsidised programme as using desalinated water to irrigate desert is not viable. So if probably the wealthiest country in the middle east region cannot make it work, what chance does Yemen or Egypt have?

They produce 24 million cubic meters of water per day. Why is it not viable?

In any of these cases, they need to jump back in and solve their problems. They don't have much of a choice about it.

The cost was calculated to exceed usd850 per metric tonne, therefore they prefer to import it, they further consume some 8.5 million metric tonnes of barley just for camel and sheep feed, so its not viable in volume either. What chance does a poorer country that has no oil and a multiple of the population of KSA have ?

In other words, it was not profitable enough. They would rather make the investment on something with a higher return, such as luxury goods. Sorry, but this is their problem.

Now, as for other countries, they need to produce value so they have something to trade for what they need. Simply as that. Again, their problem.

Permanent subsidies from the west is not a viable. They are much too independent for that.

Think the point is that even with the wealth (which they don`t all have) they cannot source the food to improve their intake, and they cannot grow it, therefore their only option is to take it.

Err... I think you guys are missing the point. It is not exactly about grain production or shortage of food. Though that is a problem, but not a serious one. World HAS enough capacity to grow food and its only a question of an incentive for doing it.

When a farmer cannot make ends meet by growing crop (for dirt cheap goods) then hes more likely to abandon it to gor for some other enterprsie.

The problem is with the distribution of Wealth. A farmer gets pennies for his efforts while the traders elsewhere make a kill. This is one of the things what these revolutions are about, to change this exploitive and unfair distribution system.

Aha. That would certainly lead to WW3. There would be death and destruction with that scenario. I doubt any country will idly sit by and let that sort of thing simply happen. They would have better chances if they take the civilized route; collaborate and cooperate. I trust the Arabs would take that route. They aren't the kind of mindless mob you see in riots in the US.

Forget the middle east. The real threat to world peace are those Nazis in Wisconsin. Not to make light of a serious issue.

Wasted, one of the biggest problems this year, a year of massive price fluctuations, has been the reluctance of the farmer to deliver against pre prices contracts. He is well able to price any time he chooses, that is not an exploitation. The problem of the traders involvement has been that it has created a volatility in prices that is very difficult for the tradional end user to control.

The Farmer has a little say in the price, its the wholesellers (usually big business with political contacts) who has means to buy and horde stock for price manipulation. These are the people who deal with Traders, not the average farmers.

Saw one documentary about Russia (one of the biggest grower of Wheat) and the farming industry was declining as the new generation is abandoning the farms their forefathers have had and heading towards the cities for jobs etc. This trend also exists elsewhere.

Was speaking to a coffee trader, who once went to a coffee farm in one of the biggest growers of coffee in South America and he said there he had the worst coffee ever. Reason being all the quality coffee is exported outside and the locals cannot afford it (same for other produce), which I think is seriously unjustified.